Our True Work (Matthew 20:1–16)

What’s the cost of withholding grace? Explore this week’s Gospel reading and consider what it means for us today.

Each week, we post a passage from Sunday’s Scriptures; share links to resources that give context and inspire new ideas; and offer a few questions to get you thinking about what we’ll read together in church.

The Gospel for September 20, 2026

Matthew 20:1–16

Jesus said, “The kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire laborers for his vineyard. After agreeing with the laborers for the usual daily wage, he sent them into his vineyard. When he went out about nine o’clock, he saw others standing idle in the marketplace; and he said to them, ‘You also go into the vineyard, and I will pay you whatever is right.’ So they went. When he went out again about noon and about three o’clock, he did the same. And about five o’clock he went out and found others standing around; and he said to them, ‘Why are you standing here idle all day?’ They said to him, ‘Because no one has hired us.’ He said to them, ‘You also go into the vineyard.’ When evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his manager, ‘Call the laborers and give them their pay, beginning with the last and then going to the first.’ When those hired about five o’clock came, each of them received the usual daily wage. Now when the first came, they thought they would receive more; but each of them also received the usual daily wage. And when they received it, they grumbled against the landowner, saying, ‘These last worked only one hour, and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the day and the scorching heat.’ But he replied to one of them, ‘Friend, I am doing you no wrong; did you not agree with me for the usual daily wage? Take what belongs to you and go; I choose to give to this last the same as I give to you. Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me? Or are you envious because I am generous?’ So the last will be first, and the first will be last.”

Read all of Sunday’s Scriptures

Step Into the Story

3 Ways to Go Deeper

Commentary

Jesus’s parable of the laborers is not about output, productivity, or even fairness; rather the vineyard is a symbol of relationship — “the dynamic interactiveness of the kingdom of God,” says theologian Cynthia Bourgeault. “The bottom line is that everybody has enough. ... The real fruit being generated ... was the work together.”

Poetry

Author Annie Dillard describes how generosity paradoxically makes way for abundance in “Spend It All,” a meditation on giving freely in the craft of writing — or anything worth doing.

Social Justice

Activist Wendell Berry reflects on the humble and humbling nature of “planet-saving” work in a brief excerpt from his essay collection Sex, Economy, Freedom & Community. 

Reflection Questions

Take a Moment to Wonder

• What’s the cost of withholding grace?
• What might happen if you “spend it all” this week?
• What if the work God has for you to do is simply to build relationships with the people beside you?